A record 180 high-achieving, ethnically diverse students from across 92 U.S. campuses participated in the 11th annual Discover EY (No. 3 on the DiversityInc Top 50 Companies list) event in New York City last week. The program is designed to address the underrepresentation of minorities in professional services through leadership development, networking and hands-on learning activities.

Parallel to Discover EY, an elite group of university faculty and administrators from more than 25 top undergraduate university programs across the U.S. convened for the 9th annual Campus Diversity and Inclusiveness Roundtable — where they shared best practices for the attraction, retention and development of the country’s most promising minority students in business schools and more.

Discover EY

The three-day, all expense-paid, Discover EY event invited participating college students to take part in interactive team-building exercises, leadership seminars, networking opportunities and conversations with some of the global EY organization’s top leaders, including Mark Weinberger, EY Global Chairman and CEO; Kate Barton, EY Americas Vice Chair, Tax; Dan Black, EY Americas Recruiting Leader, Natasha Stough, EY Americas Director of Campus Recruiting; and Ken Bouyer, EY Americas Director of Inclusiveness Recruiting. The attendees, who are primarily college sophomores and juniors, will be eligible to interview for internships with EY following the conference.

“Discover EY is one of the many ways our organization seeks to open doors for high-achieving future talent, providing insight and transparency into EY’s culture and its many opportunities,” said Mark Weinberger.

“We are seeing a tremendous demand for top talent across various disciplines to serve our diverse clients and our communities. Given the current climate of the global workforce, we will need to build diverse, high performing teams that can drive innovative solutions in the US and globally.”

Due in part to the continued success and expansion of this program since it launched in 2006, minorities now represent 37 percent of total full-time professionals at Ernst & Young LLP coming from campuses in the U.S. To date, the program has reached more than 1,500 students and many past Discover EY participants have gone on to complete successful internships and today, are employed full-time by the firm.

Campus Diversity and Inclusiveness Roundtable

The annual EY Campus Diversity and Inclusiveness Roundtable provides college and university business leaders with the opportunity to participate in forums with EY leaders to share leading diversity and inclusiveness best practices that can positively impact retention of top underrepresented minority and female students.

This year’s roundtable sessions included:

Unconscious bias and stereotype threat and the effects both have on campus environments

How universities are investing in the growth and development of their underrepresented minority students

What strategies universities and companies are using to create a more inclusive culture for underrepresented students and talent

Many successful university programs have been implemented as a result of the Roundtable. Two successful programs implemented by universities include:

The Cornell University Men of Color Seminar: This Cornell course covers networking, developing leadership presence, and explores the negative impact of stereotypes in the workplace. In addition, participants take part in a learning session focused on best practices to help top underrepresented minority students graduate.

The University of Washington’s Young Executives of Color (YEOC): This free nine-month college pipeline program hosted by the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business and funded by Ernst & Young LLP. The program currently serves 175 high school sophomores, juniors and seniors from 75 schools in the state of Washington. As part of the program, students attend sessions on the UW campus one Saturday every month for college preparation, business lectures, professional development and powerful mentorship.

“At EY, we always look forward to learning about what new innovative and inclusive strategies top universities are establishing to attract, engage and retain underrepresented students not only in the accounting profession, but across various disciplines,” said Ken Bouyer.

“The Roundtable enables faculty members to learn from their peers, while hearing from business leaders on how they promote underrepresented talent throughout their respective organizations.”

To learn more about Ernst & Young LLP’s campus recruiting efforts, Discover EY, or the Campus Diversity and Inclusiveness Roundtable, visit www.ey.com.

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